Secrets Of British Castles Review

Secrets of Great British Castles is presented by historian, journalist and writer Dan Jones. The six part series looks at six different but very famous castles all over the United Kingdom.

The castles shown are Dover, Tower of London, Warwick, Caernarfon, Stirling and Carrickfergus.

There are two individual editing and camera techniques used in this series to maintain interest in the program. One of them being the use of slow motion. With this, the audience can follow the movement of the presenter in a more relaxed manner. But with the use of slow motion, the audeince can take longer to look at the shot and admire the castle itself.

The second technique used is very common with historical documentaries. The use of reconstruction allows the audience to understand not only what happened in a visual manner, but it also allows the audience to keep up with the change of events. As its easier to remember who's who when you have a face or subject to link it to. Furthermore, it allows the audience to understand what other pressing questions they may have, such as what did people during that time wear.

I found this program visually mixed. It seemed, and was portrayed as, a basic timeline structure. However the unique addition of slow motion seemed to allow it to step out of that stereotypical bracket of documentaries. It seemed to add an element of interest and as the audience, I felt like I could take time in looking around the scene, as I obviously would if I was at the location myself.